Zoomers Chose TikTok Over Google. What Happens if TikTok REALLY Goes?

About the methods we can use to find information in an increasingly warped world

If you’ve been following the news over the last few days, you might have noticed that everything has been a little coo-coo.

I’m speaking, of course, about the recent whiplash that was TikTok going completely dark - and then returning hours later - in the United States. Late at night on Saturday, January 18, a couple hours shy of the pending existential threat that is TikTok shutting down, users across North America were greeted with the following message:

Everything that had been promised, that we’d been working so hard to prevent behind the scenes, was unfortunately coming to fruition. Even though Joe Biden promised that the law would not be acted upon during his remaining hours in office, TikTok decided to go forward and admit they were blocking users from using the app. All of which was made even worse when the app went completely dark, replaced with this message:

Goodbyes were given. Confessions were made. For viewers and creators alike, it was total pandemonium, while all of your co-workers who don’t even use TikTok snidely posted, “Hmph, these zoomers and their brain rot app, log off and TOUCH GRASS.”

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WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

Here’s the thing, Mr. Co-Worker. It’s not quite as simple as going outside or finding somewhere else. There’s certainly a conversation worth having about screen time in the modern age, but that conversation also needs to happen with the proper context that as recently as a year ago, nearly 62% of the 18-24 demographic now use TikTok as their primary search engine, according to Forbes.

That’s a crazy stat. But - what does it mean?